YouTube - Apple, Almond + Salted Caramel Tray Bake

From my One Cake Three Ways series

This Apple, Almond + Salted Caramel Tray Bake is a celebration of comfort and crunch, starting with a nourishing base of grated apple and almond meal—moist, fragrant, and delicately spiced with cinnamon. Topped with a scattering of flaked almonds and a generous amount of salted caramel, it strikes that perfect balance between wholesome and just a little bit wicked. Whether served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or sliced for a morning tea moment, it’s a crowd-pleaser that feels both nostalgic and just a little bit special. One base cake, many moods—this one’s all about sticky fingers and satisfied sighs. Scroll down to watch me prepare the gorgeous thing on my YouTube channel.

VEG | V |

SERVES (10-12)

PREP TIME -15 mins

COOK TIME - 40-50 mins

INGREDIENTS

Base Cake

Dry Ingredients

1 ½  cup SR flour 

1 cup almond meal 

½ cup brown sugar 

½ tsp salt (I used locally sourced Lake Deborah salt)

Wet Ingredients

3 eggs

½ cup milk

½ cup yoghurt

½  cup olive oil

1 tsp vanilla paste  or extract

2 apples, coarsely grated (skin on)

Additional Ingredients

Dry

2 tsp cinnamon

Wet

1 large apple, grated, skin on (plus the two listed in the base recipe)

Topping

½ cup flaked almonds

1 jar (250ml) quality store bought caramel

METHOD

  1. Complete steps 1 - 3 above instructions for base cake 

    3. Grease and line a square 20cm x 20cm x 4cm cake tin.

    4. Pour prepared batter into a cake tin, smoothing the top with a spatula. 

    5. Drizzle over ½ jar of caramel and spread roughly across the top then scatter flaked almonds.

    6. Bake for 40 - 45 minutes or until the cake springs back when pressed. 

    7. Allow to rest in cake tin for 10 minutes before serving with extra caramel and a dusting of icing sugar


    Serve with vanilla ice cream or double cream


COOKS NOTES

DAIRY

  • For the milk and yoghurt component, if you don't have quite enough milk or no yoghurt in the fridge, don't worry, just add 1 cup of what you have to hand: milk, yoghurt or both.

DRY MIX OPTIONS

  • I like to mix up my dry mix and use alternatives. In this recipe, you can swap the self raising flour with : 1 cup Wholemeal Spelt +  ½ cup SR flour and 2 tsp baking powder.

  • I also like to use coconut for texture. Use that if you’d like to replace the almond meal, however I’d swap 1 cup almond meal for 1.25 cups of coconut. 

FAT

  • All cakes require a fat component, the beauty of using olive oil is that it helps to keep the cake moist for days in addition to its plethora of health benefits. 

EGGS

  • Use room temperature eggs. Because the yolks are softer at room temperature, they break much more easily and incorporate well into the other ingredients in the bowl.